The Highwinds
by Hansuna
Summary: SOLDIER may be Shin-Ra's elite army, but the Turks have their own elite squad: "The Turks Special Division", better known now as "The Highwinds." This is their story, from start to finish, within this world of fantasy. Original cast alongside FFVII universe. *Warning: First story ever written, go easy on me please.*
1. A Chance Encounter

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII in any way. If did then I'm pretty sure the original characters this story is about would be in the game to begin with but oh well. This is my first story ever and I hope to see it through to it's end. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. Anyway, let's get this party started.

**Chapter 1: A Chance Encounter**

* * *

In an area just north of Corel, within a difficult to access cave, was the entrance to a well hidden facility. It was quiet, almost too quiet, but for this facility in particular quiet was the normal thing. None the less a man still stood guard at the entrance. For the man standing guard here it seemed a pointless task. He was paid to stand eight hours a day and guard the door, yet for the past two weeks nothing had happened beyond being relieved by the next guard when his shift had ended. The facility itself was self-sustained and any visitor to the facility came by helicopter, landing at the facilities helipad, completely bypassing the main entrance where this man was paid to stand.

A bored sigh escaped the guard as he looked down at his gloves before running one through his spiked brown hair. He was dressed in the standard attire of a member of SOLDIER, two steel shoulder pads and a purple sleeveless turtle-neck sweater, the pair of fairly loose pants being held in place by the brown leather belt marked with the emblem of SOLDIER. Slung across his back was the standard long sword used by most SOLDIER members. The purple uniform marked him as SOLDIER Second Class, only a single rank behind the most powerful members of SOLDIER; the powerful First Class. Most humans, even those who had trained to fight for the entirety of their lives could only hope to be even half as good as a Third Class SOLDIER, let alone a Second Class.

And this Second Class SOLDIER, a man who could easily be classed as one of the strongest people in the world, was stood guarding a door in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say it left him very bored and wishing for a good old fight. After all, SOLDIER was the single best fighting force on the planet, they were elite warriors, not simple guards, but a mission is a mission.

The sudden but quiet echo of a footstep shattered his melancholic mood in an instant and had the guard standing up straight as he looked around the cave, his right hand already gripping the handle of his blade. In the shadows a man stepped forwards, he seemed rather lost in his own world as he moved in a casual manner, seemingly unknowing of his own actions.

The mysterious man continued forwards, his actions rather odd considering the numerous security cameras and laser activated trip wires the man had to have bypassed to get this far. Tensing his whole body so he could launch into action if need be the member of SOLDIER spoke up, "Halt! This is a restricted area!" The SOLDIER had to resist the urge to draw the blade across his back, orders were orders after all and the member of SOLDIER had been ordered annoyingly to detain, rather than kill intruders.

The odd intruder had messy black hair and wore dark clothes, judging by the patches of dirt and the numerous small rips the man was either a drifter or a homeless man. As far as the SOLDIER was concerned, neither a drifter nor a homeless man were welcome within this facility.

The seemingly homeless man stopped moving and stood still looking at the SOLDIER in surprise. The SOLDIER himself was surprised, _'Damn... I didn't think that'd actually work. Just who the hell is this guy?' _Deciding to verbalise at least part of his thought the guard spoke up, "Who are you? Identify yourself!"

The man stared at the guard, an awkward silence echoing in the room briefly before the man titled his head in confusion, "What do you mean?"

The guard blinked a few times before shouting in frustration, "What do you mean what do I mean? Who the hell are you damn it? What's your name? Answer me!"

The homeless man frowned, "What do you mean by my... 'name?'"

"...What?" Came the deadpan response from the guard. "Seriously? You don't know what a name is, really?" The homeless man nodded slowly in response.

The guard opened his mouth to speak before closing it again to think. A second later the guard spoke a lot more calmly, "A name is, umm... A name is what people call you. That's... the best way I can say it really. My name is Josh for example. What's yours?" Pointing at the man with his free hand.

There was a painful and awkward silence as the homeless man looked at the floor with an almost forlorn expression on his face. "My... name? I... I don't have a name... people don't really call me anything..."

"...Right... OK, so you don't have a name. Sorry about that, but there's not a lot I can do about it so... let me ask you something a bit more important. Hopefully you can answer this one for me or else this friendly little chat is gonna end real fast and real ugly." Josh crossed his arms as the homeless man tilted his head in a questioning manner.

"Just how the hell did you get in here without tripping any of the alarms?" He asked sternly.

The homeless man blinked at the question from Josh. "There were... alarms? I just walked through the cave until I came across you. Is this somewhere I'm not supposed to be?" The man began looking around as if he were a lost child.

Josh frowned, _'The defence systems here are on par with the ones back at Shin-Ra HQ. Just who the hell is this guy to simply walk through them all. That's impossible.' _A growl escaped from his throat as Josh spoke up angrily, "I don't believe for a second that you just walked up to here without tripping some kind of alarm, and to not even know you were doing it," swinging his fist to his side, "What trick are you trying to pull?"

"No trick, I was just having a walk, I swea-" The man's eyes widened as ducked a sudden swing from Josh's blade, "What the hell?"

Standing with his sword raised in front of him Josh tightened his grip on the handle of his blade as he prepared to swing again. "That does it! I've been itching for a fight and then you... No name, no clue and not a care in the world, well I hope no one cares about you, because you're about to not have a life either." Launching towards the man Josh brought his blade downwards towards the homeless man, the tip of the blade leaving a gash in the floor as he swiftly dashed backwards.

"You're not a very nice person are you?" The homeless man taunted lightly. This angered Josh, growling as he swung again wildly. The homeless man seemed to turn serious as he quickly ducked the swing aimed for his neck. Spinning full circle Josh swung again at the man's legs in a single fluid motion, forcing the man to jump the low swing that came mere milliseconds after the first attack. Unrelenting Josh brought his blade diagonally up quickly hoping the attack would catch the man off guard, but to no avail as he nimbly performed a backwards roll to dodge the rising swing. Before even fully coming out of his roll he was forced to cancel it by lunging to the side to dodge the fierce forward sword thrust coming his way. This game of cat and mouse continued for what felt like hours, but in reality was only mere minutes.

Josh frowned, _'He's fast. Very fast. Hell, I don't think that even some of the Firsts can dodge that quick.' _Both Josh and the homeless man circled each other. _'He's moving far more fluidly as well. Not a single wasted movement. Damn, I can't let some nameless fool get the better of me!'_

"Dodge this!" His blue mako affected eyes glowing briefly, Josh made a long, inhumanly quick cut in the empty space in front of him, "Air Slasher!" A crescent arc of compressed glowing silver air flew impossibly fast from Josh's blade directly towards the homeless man.

The man didn't even have to think to know that whatever was flying his way would hurt, if not kill him, instinctively jumping into the air over the flaring attack by a good ten feet. With it's intended target now rocketing skywards the flying silver projectile struck the back of the cave with such force it nearly brought the whole cave down on top of them, sending out an extremely loud explosion-like noise echoing through the cave. The homeless man grabbed onto a pipe running across the ceiling that had been dislodged from the roof as a result of Josh's missed attack, and there he hung as Josh stared up at him in surprise.

_'That was one of my most powerful and fastest techniques, to dodge it just like that... And to jump that high...' _Josh's eyes glowed again as his anger spiked, shouting at his opponent, striking the floor with his sword as he did so, "What the hell! How did you do that!"

Using the hand not gripping the pipe to rub the back of his head sheepishly the homeless man smiled, "Umm... How angry would you be if I said I didn't know?"

"Oh for gods sake.." Josh looked at the floor as he shook his head in disbelief, before looking up at the man hanging on the pipe by a single arm. Josh opened his mouth to speak before finding himself laughing in continued disbelief. The homeless man smiled and chuckled along with him.

Josh sighed as he stopped laughing and drew his blade up from the gash he had struck with it, "You're not normal are you?"

The man hanging from the ceiling was still laughing slightly, "Heh, no, I don't think I am."

"Well hell, a normal answer for once." A slight snicker escaping him, "You're not bad my nameless friend, and trust me it's nothing personal, but I'm afraid I've still got to kill you." His eyes hardening as the mood turned serious yet again Josh prepared to fire another of his Air Slashers towards his now dangling opponent, not thinking about the fact the ceiling would fall after doing so...

"Josh! That's enough!"

Both Josh and the nameless man looked towards the now open entrance of the facility where a man stood lit by the doorway. He was dressed in a blue suit with shoulder length black hair and a small red dot in the centre of his forehead. The man's almost expressionless face suggested that the man would take no nonsense from those he spoke to, a fact both registered immediately.

Josh blinked in surprise, "Tseng? What are you doing here?"

Tseng folded his arms, closing his eyes, "I'm the one in charge of this facility." Opening his eyes with a physically sharp stare towards Josh, "Are you not reading your mission documents again?"

Josh looked down as he shifted from foot to foot hoping Tseng wouldn't push the issue any further. Paperwork wasn't something the SOLDIER was any good at and unfortunately even the most boring missions came with even more boring paperwork.

In a moment of good fortune for Josh, Tseng decided that the more important matter was currently hanging from the ceiling. Taking a few steps forward Tseng looked up towards the hanging man before asking simply, "Do you mind coming down here please?"

Giving a quick nod to Tseng to signal his descent the man let go of the pipe and dropped to the floor almost soundlessly landing in a crouch and slowly stood to face him, all the while keeping an eye on Josh. He wasn't one that liked letting an opponent get out of his sight even for a moment.

"Don't worry, I won't bite." Josh smiled, thinking to himself that he had returned the taunt he had received earlier.

"It's the sword I'm keeping my eye on, not your teeth." The man rebutted sharply.

"Enough." Tseng was quick to stop any possibility of a continuing fight between the two. "You." Tseng pointed at the intruder. "You seriously claim to have gotten this far into this facility without even noticing the extensive security systems?" A simple nod was the only answer Tseng got from the man who was still watching Josh for movement. "Well... isn't that interesting... and you have no name, and I would assume no place to return to?" The man nodded again.

"Wait a minute, how do you know he doesn't have a name?" Josh rightfully butted in, but quickly backed down with a quick glare from Tseng.

"As soon as you began talking earlier the guys up in security called me up there, telling me you had gone mad. They said you were asking nobody what their name was, and getting quite angry over it. By the time I arrived and got a look at the monitors you were busy explaining what a name was to thin air..." Tseng looked at the intruder as if trying to read him like a book, but failing to get any information from him or his body language before continuing his explanation. "Up until the point where you engaged this man in combat, none of our sensors or cameras could see or even hear him..."

"What the hell? How is that even possible?" Josh asked in confusion.

"I'm not sure if even he knows how he was doing it, do you?" Tseng asked the intruder, who looked just as surprised as Josh at his explanation, eventually shaking his head in response.

"I see... Then would you like to work for us? You appear to have some very interesting... 'talents', ones I'm sure we could use, and it would be a shame for Josh to have to finish you off..." Tseng stated matter-of-factly.

"Hmph, you make it sound like he was winning our little fight." The man quipped brashly, making Josh throw a deadpan stare towards him "But really, you want me to work for you? Why?"

"If Josh wasn't standing guard here then you very well could have got inside this facility without even trying... That is a skill that, when refined, I would quite like to be on our side rather than wasted. Even your skills in combat appear to hold promise if you are able to hold your own against a SOLDIER." Tseng explained, getting Josh to cross his arms and pout at what he saw as an insult to his fighting skills.

The man remained silent for a few seconds, one eye always on Josh before he nodded and spoke. "Fine, it's not like I've got much else to do, I've got one condition though..."

"Which is?" Both Josh and Tseng found themselves wondering on what possible condition this strange man would state.

"I want... A name..." He answered, his eyes looking down in an almost sad manner.

Rather surprised by the man's earnest request Tseng dropped his serious expression for a moment. "Deal, from this point onwards you shall be known as- "

"Ricky." Josh simply shrugged as they both looked at him. "What? He looks like a Ricky."

Tseng threw a deadpan look at Josh, then looked back to the newly named man and continued calmly, "If you have no objections then please follow me." He turned and began to walk back towards the facility, past a few people who had come out to see what had shook the cave moments earlier.

Finally turning his attention away from Josh and looking towards Tseng through the small crowd he smirked "'Ricky', huh? Yeah, that'll do just fine..." He slowly began to follow Tseng into the facility, wary of the people now throwing him confused looks as he made his way by them.

Ricky was then promptly glomped by Josh in a playful manner, "What? Tseng, you really gotta stop taking people in man." Josh shouted towards the entrance Tseng had just disappeared through, then turning his attention to the rather unimpressed man he had just jumped on, "So I guess this makes me your superior if you're joining us? Don't worry, I'll take care of you." He smirked.

Shoving Josh's arms off of himself Ricky continued towards the facility "Hmph, trust me, you will never be superior to me. Ever." He snared as he disappeared into the doorway.

"Huh? What the hell do you mean by that? Hey!" Josh shouted as he chased him inside, leaving the confused crowd in silence, just as the cave had been less than thirty minutes ago.

* * *

**And there you have it! **

**I like it as a very breif introduction to the vast world I hope to craft but I'll leave it to you to let me know if it's any good or not. Review and stuff and let me know about any things you like or dislike about the story or how I write, I'm not going to get better from ass kissers or flamers so tell me straight but be constructive if you can.**

**Anyway, it's late as hell, I've not slept all night and probably won't even after posting this, either way, I'm out.**

**Peace, ]-[**


	2. Initiation

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, or any of them for that matter... Come to think of it I don't really own anything of worth... Life is cruel. Anyway, on with the show.

**Chapter 2: Initiation**

* * *

As he passed through the entrance to the facility following after Tseng, Ricky couldn't help but wonder to himself, '_What the hell have I gotten myself into?_' As he looked around he quickly came to the realization that he had absolutely no idea what was going on. He had accepted Tseng's offer on a whim, not giving much thought as to what 'working' for him would actually entail.

An audible sigh escaped him, looking around as he walked through the pristine passage, white tiles that looked as if they'd never been walked on, plain white metal walls, and rather high ceilings with long cylinder tubes lighting the entire corridor. As he continued onwards he noticed the reoccurring pattern of the corridor in front of him; a door on both sides of the passageway, followed by branching corridors that led left and right before repeating onwards for a distance he couldn't make out clearly. The fact that every branching corridor seemed to follow the same pattern as the one he was currently on led him to realize something, '_Whoa... this place is huge. Unbelievably so. How the hell is this place a secret? How do you go about building something like this without anyone noticing?_'

"Hey!"

Ricky was broken from his musings as he turned to see a rather annoyed Josh catching up to him and Tseng, "What the hell was that about? I was just joking around trying to get you you to lighten up then you go and be a dick about it." Ricky turned to continue after Tseng, who hadn't stopped walking when Josh had shouted, and if his loose grasp of the size of the facility was anywhere near correct he knew that losing Tseng in here may wind up with him never finding his way out. Josh growled, "Hey, don't igno-"

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Josh stopped short at the abrupt apology.

"I'm sorry about how I acted back there." Ricky continued, snapping Josh from his confusion to begin walking after him again, "I... wasn't quite myself. When I'm in danger I get a lot more focused so I don't, you know... die. Seems like I can be a bit of a... dick as you say, along with it. So sorry about that, but... you _were_ the one that attacked me."

Josh was surprised at the rather up front apology, "Umm... yeah, sorry about that, but it was... Erm... _I__s_ my job to keep outsiders away from the facility, so you can't really blame me for that."

Ricky just nodded his head to the side, "Makes sense."

Josh grinned, "And as for the switch in how you act I noticed it too, it's... kind of hard to miss."

Tseng came to a stop at one of the doors and turned to join the conversation, "I noticed the same thing and I would like to look into that alongside some of your other abilities myself, but... before that there's one matter we're going to have to take care of first..."

Ricky quickly panicked in thought, '_Oh no... I bet there's some kind of initiation or some crap to go through... wait... It could be an interrogation, they don't have a clue about me after all... oh no... what if it's something painful... Why the hell did I accept this guy's offer... Damn it..._"

Tseng pressed the button next to the door, opening it to reveal the purpose of the room, "You need to have to have a shower... And we'll get some new clothes for you to wear too" Tseng stated as he motioned for Ricky to enter the rather large bathroom.

"What... That's it?" Ricky looked bewildered as he almost fell over at the sudden release of his panicked tension, much to Josh's amusement.

"Yes, that's it. What were you expecting?" Tseng asked, getting Ricky to look away as he began to question why he thought so poorly of his new benefactor, "Well, I can understand being a little surprised, but there's a reason for getting this out of the way first, but we can talk about that later. For now just go and clean yourself up, you too Josh" Giving said SOLDIER a quick glance.

"What, me too? Why?" Josh asked in a bemused manner.

Tseng justified, "Well, two reasons really: One; you're little stunt out there that almost brought the cave down has covered you two in dirt. With this being a sanitised facility and all I think you can understand why you and him need to clean up. And two; do you really think it's a good idea leaving Ricky on his own to get lost once he's done? Plus, does he look like someone who knows how to use a shower?" Josh did a double take at the rare moment of humour from the Turk.

"Hey, I'm a wanderer, I'm not stupid..." Ricky dead-panned towards Tseng, before smirking at the joke, '_Okay that was pretty funny... for Tseng_'.

"Josh, show him to one of the spare lockers and point out where the showers are. Ricky there should be everything you need in the locker, take your time and I'll make sure we get you some clothes brought down before you're done. We'll get to the serious matters afterwards." Tseng finished giving his orders before he turned down one of the branching corridors and disappeared.

After watching Tseng leave Josh sighed, "Well come on then, let's get you cleaned up" He said before realizing Ricky had already entered the room and was looking around. '_Why do I get the feeling I'm gonna be stuck with this guy for a while...'_ Shaking his head Josh entered the room, closing the door behind him.

Ricky was taking in the sheer size of the bathroom, on the right side of the room there were rows of back to back lockers separated by long benches. To the left there were open cubicle doors that each had a shower and small locker inside. A pretty standard bathroom as far as most normal people would be concerned, but it was massive in comparison to what he had been used to before becoming a wanderer.

"Well, I guess this one should do." Ricky was snapped from his wonderment by a voice, "Catch!" As he turned to where the voice was coming from he was met with a towel to the face that just hung over his head as he wondered what the hell had just happened.

"Oops, my bad." Ricky slowly pulled the towel down from his head to see a laughing Josh stood by an open locker, "Come on man, I know you're faster than that. Why couldn't you have been that slow when we were fighting?" An unimpressed Ricky just stared him down, putting a stop to his laughter. Slightly. "Well, looks like you can have this locker. I take it you know how to use soap and shampoo, because to hell with Tseng if he thinks I'm gonna show you."

"Yes, I know how to use them! I wasn't always a wanderer you know, I've used a shower before for gods sake." Ricky was beginning to get annoyed at being treated like a child.

"Well no, I don't know, because if you don't remember we met less than an hour ago... Anyway, if you know what you're doing then I'm going to my locker to get changed, see you later." With that Josh left the row he was in to find his own locker further down.

'_I know he's just trying to help... I think, but why the hell is he so annoying about it... Oh well, I can't remember the last time I had a good shower, so let's get to it._' With that thought Ricky took what he needed from the locker and headed to the shower. After locking the cubicle door and putting his clothes and towel into the small locker inside he turned on the shower to be met by steaming hot water, a luxury his chosen way of life had forsaken long ago. '_Yeah, even if Tseng hadn't ordered me to, I'm going to take my time with this._'

XxX

(30 minutes later)

"Hey man, you alive in there?" A voice shouted from outside the cubicle followed by a knock.

Ricky snapped from his Zen-like state that he had fallen into after the first five minutes he had been under the water. '_Man... I forgot how calming a real shower could be_.' After collecting his thoughts he answered, "Yeah, I'm fine, I'll be out in a minute." He begrudgingly turned off the shower and retrieved his towel to begin drying himself.

"Good good, thought you'd fallen asleep or something. Anyway, looks like Tseng found you some clothes, they're on the bench by your locker in a bag, they had a note with them too." Josh explained.

"What does the note say?" Ricky asked as he wrapped his towel around his waist.

"You can read it for yourself, but let's just say: this should get... _interesting _very soon." Josh laughed as he seemed to walk off, probably back to his own locker to get dressed.

Ricky exited the cubicle and made his way over to see what Tseng had wrote. He sat on the bench next to the bag containing the clothes Tseng had left. He quickly took the note attached to the bag and read: '_Here are the clothes for you to wear. When you two are done I want Josh to bring you to meet me in room D-13. There are a lot of questions and it's about time we found some answers for them. Tseng._'

Ricky put down the note on the bench as he turned to the bag next to him. As he pulled out the top piece as he grinned to himself, '_Hmm, this should be... interesting._' Before he began to get dressed.

XxX

(5 minutes later)

Josh had put on a clean set of his SOLDIER outfit and grabbed his sword, spinning it a few times in front of him before attaching it to his back, '_OK, he should be ready by now. I can't wait to see what Tseng is up to, I know that room; D-13... I wonder how he'll react? Honestly I don't know who's harder to read here, Tseng or Ricky..._' Finishing his thought he closed his locker and walked down to where he had left Ricky, "Hey, you all ready... to... What the hell!"

"What? What's the matter?" Ricky asked as he stood up in surprise at the sudden shout.

"What the _hell_ is Tseng thinking giving you_ those_?" Josh growled angrily as he scowled at the clothes Ricky now wore. They were near identical to those that Josh wore, the differences being a lack shoulder pads and that the left arm had a long sleeve rather than being sleeveless. In addition he also wore a connected set of brown straps, one horizontal at his waist with another diagonally going from his right hip over his left shoulder. But the main difference, and the cause for the fellow SOLDIER clad Josh's anger was it's colour. Unlike his own purple sweater and pants, Ricky was currently clad in a fully black SOLDIER uniform, or as it was better known, a SOLDIER First Class uniform. Add to this that after washing it Ricky's black hair was now slightly spiked downwards at the front over his dark brownish, almost black eyes and up at the back, '_Damn it... He reminds me of Zack..._' Josh frowned at the reminder of the fellow SOLDIER comrade Josh hadn't seen since they trained alongside each other in their earlier years at the academy.

"What, why shouldn't he have given me these? And why are you angry again? Or do you just have mood swings every now and then? Because that would explain a _lot_." Ricky had his head tilted in a questing manner as he spoke in a light joking tone, but Josh was far from a joking mood, never dropping the scowl on his face Josh grabbed him by the belt across his chest and dragged him out of the door, marching through the corridors, "Hey, what's going on? Why are you in such a hurry?" Ricky struggled as he was forced along.

"Be quiet, it's not you I'm angry at, it's Tseng I'm angry at, and I think it's about time we all had a nice long talk..." Josh exclaimed as he let go of Ricky's strap but motioned for him to keep up, which he did quickly as his earlier thought of getting lost could still quite easily happen if he didn't do so.

Following Josh at a pace that may as well have been a full blown run they turned into at least five different corridors until finally arriving outside their destination; room D-13. Josh punched the button to open the door before punching the same fist into the palm of his hand. The door opened after a few seconds, but these seconds were like hours to Josh in his anger.

Ricky just looked at Josh wondering what had riled him up so much, he couldn't think of anything wrong, '_I haven't done anything other than get dressed. Is the fact I'm was wearing similar clothes to him really so offensive?'_ After a short wait the door slid open and Josh marched inside, with Ricky following straight after, the door closing behind them, clicking as it shut...

"All right Tseng, what the hell are you doing giving him those clothes... and where the hell are you?" Josh had began shouting as he entered the room, not actually checking to find Tseng before doing so. Much to his annoyance, Tseng wasn't there.

"Hmm... on his note he said he'd meet us here, maybe he's busy and hasn't got here yet?" Ricky pondered calmly.

Josh decided to handle the situation in the polar opposite fashion, something that was a standard affair by this point, as he turned back to the door and kicked the button, "If he's not here yet I'll go find him!" He stomped the button again. And again. And again. The door didn't budge. "What the! Why is the door locked?" Josh raved.

Ricky was slowly becoming unsettled as he awkwardly shifted his body in place. It wasn't just the information that the door was locked that had him unsettled. While Josh argued with the inanimate door, Ricky was looking around the room and he wasn't liking what he was seeing. The square room was large, very large, almost the size of the cave where he fought his shouting companion not too long ago, the walls were made up of white square panels, as was the floor, and the majority of the roof if not for the segments where the lights were built into it. The only thing that stood out in the room was the large pane of mirrored glass, something that Ricky had seen enough times to know you were always being watched from the other side.

A sharp sound of static echoed through the room, getting Josh to stop harassing the door before a voice spoke from the speakers that had exposed themselves out from the panels of the walls, "**Ah, you're both here, wonderful... Let's begin then, shall we.**"

"Tseng! I know it's you! Let us out, I know what this room is!" Josh shouted towards the glass but there was no answer as the speakers retracted back into the walls.

"What? What's so special about this room?" Ricky asked, feigning calm as he began to worry about the situation they were trapped in.

"Well I'll put it this way; those speakers aren't the only thing that this room has, and trust me when I say it's the only thing the room has that's not-" Josh was cut from his explanation when a turret rose from the centre of the room and fired a shot towards him, which Josh quickly twisted out of the way as he finished his sentence, "Painful..."

Ricky looked to where the shot of the turret had landed and saw a small ball of what looked like rubber on the floor, "A ball? Not live ammo?" He asked confused at what was going on.

"Don't sound so disappointed..." Josh answered as he dodged another shot, "Trust me though... just because it's not live ammo, you really don't wanna get hit by these..." Josh drew his sword and deflected another shot with it, "They hurt... a lot."

Ricky believed Josh's words if not for just how desperately he was dodging and deflecting the balls, but as another turret rose behind him it seemed Tseng wanted him to learn this first hand.

As the second turret fired Josh turned to laugh at Ricky being caught of guard. His pre-emptive laugh was short lived as Ricky had not only dodged the shot that he couldn't have possibly seen coming, but was now sat atop the turret that had fired at him, with the barrel of the turret in his hands, "How did you do that?" Josh asked before taking a shot to his side while he was off his guard, "Damn, I was right, these things still hurt like motherf-" He was cut off as he was forced to dodge another turret that had risen at his side, managing to cut it's barrel off before it could fire again.

"I told you before, when I'm in danger something just... switches, I think that's what Tseng wanted to see first hand by doing this." Ricky answered as he hopped from the tops of turrets as they rose, disarming them as fast as he could while dodging the fire of the other turrets as he did so. But for every one he disarmed, another two would appear. Taking stock of the locations of the turrets Ricky noticed the first one he had disarmed had straight afterwards retracted and not too long after reappeared, fixed. Looking around he soon realized the rest were doing the same. '_Damn... This is getting out of hand._'

Josh's approach to the situation was similar, but much less elegant, running around swinging wildly, cleaving the barrels of turrets off and slicing some entire turrets clean in half before rushing the next turret he saw.

Taking a quick rough count Ricky noted there was now at least 30 turrets and climbing, some now even appearing from the walls. He was keeping track of each ones movements, target, if it had been disarmed or was just appearing, and even managing to keep track of where turrets would be rising and after how long, as he had figured out the time it took for them to repair and resurface again. And while this ability to keep track of things so well worried him, as it wasn't something he knew he could do, he had realized something else interesting; even after the time in which most of the turrets retracted then reappeared, the turrets Josh had cleaved straight in half were not returning, "Josh! Don't aim for the barrels, cut them in half, they can't be repaired that way!"

"They were repairing?" Josh blurted, stopping in place surprised at the information before continuing his rampage.

Ricky face palmed at the lack of tactical attention from Josh, "Yes, they are, so slice them all in half so they can't be repaired! I'll try to disarm as many as I can to keep the fire rate down and let you know if anything changes!"

"Right!" Josh shouted in compliance as he switched his tactics from swinging wildly to taking cleaner swings and actively shutting down turrets for good. '_This seems to be working. Was this what Tseng wanted us to do?_'

Ricky begun traversing the horizontal turrets appearing from the walls while disarming as many as he could as he flew from one to the next, he knew the ones he took care of would be back, but it would at least lessen the barrage of fire directed at Josh while he was busy taking them down for good. Ricky could already tell Josh was thinning the numbers and keeping them down but there was still so many left, and just because they couldn't repair the disabled ones didn't mean new ones weren't still popping up. They needed to end all of them together if they were going to put a definitive end to this, and Ricky knew just what they needed, "Josh! Change of plan, get to this wall now!"

Josh didn't verbally answer, but he changed course towards where Ricky was perched atop a turret at the far back wall, he didn't have the time to answer but this plan had worked thus far, so he trusted that whatever Ricky needed him over there for was important. Soon Josh was directly under Ricky's turret, turning to look out at the rest of them, "Okay I'm here, what's the plan?"

Standing up on the his turret Ricky pointed with his sleeved arm towards the army of turrets that were currently locking on to them, "Air Slasher! Now!"

Josh grinned towards the turrets as his eyes flashed blue and reared his sword back, "I'll do you one better!" With a lighting fast swipe of his longsword a horizontal silver blade of flaring air the width of the room flew towards the battalion of turrets, "Hyper Air Slasher!" The massive attack drove it's way all the way through every turret on the ground, utterly destroying them as it bolted across the room and ploughed into the back wall, blowing the locked door off its hinges and through the door on the opposite side of the corridor. "HELL YEAH! What you know about that!" Josh shouted as he jumped to the air in celebration.

The turrets along the walls that had survived the giant Air Slasher retracted back into the walls, forcing Ricky to jump down to Josh's side, "Damn, I'm glad you didn't fire that one at me... Hey, you OK?" Josh fell to one knee after his celebratory outburst.

"Yeah, I'm fine. A normal Air Slasher drains me a little, but that one takes the piss..." Josh explained as he rose using his sword like a crutch to balance himself, "But don't give me all the credit, it was your plan that won us this. I didn't even notice they were repairing until you told me."

The echoing sound of clapping reached the two, turning see Tseng applauding through where the mirrored glass had been, which was now absolutely shattered, "Incredible, I didn't actually think this would work out so well, but you two really are good together."

"Tseng! You bastard!" Josh shouted trying to fully stand but his balance betrayed him and he fell on his back.

"Yes Josh, I'm sorry for springing this test on you two, but I had my reasons." Tseng attempted to calm Josh to no avail.

"I don't give a damn about your test!" Josh screamed as he rose once more, keeping upright this time.

"Then... What are you mad about?" Tseng asked with a puzzled expression.

Josh pointed to Ricky, still glaring at Tseng, "I want to know why the _hell_ you gave _him_ a SOLDIER god damn First Class uniform?"

"Oh, that? It was all we had lying around. Why does it matter?" Tseng answered plainly.

"What?" Josh stopped raving and just sat down, giving up fighting to keep on his feet, "But, that's the uniform for top rank SOLDIERS, he can't wear it!" Josh whined childishly, Tseng simply shook his head and jumped through where the glass had been and into the room.

"Josh, stop complaining. I told you, It's all I could find on such short notice, but in my opinion I think it suits him." Tseng chided Josh as he walked carefully through the debris that filled the room.

"Really, what's so important about these clothes? And I gotta agree with Tseng, unlike you; I make this look good." Ricky put his hands behind his head as he taunted his floor-bound friend.

"You what? What did you just say!" Josh ranted and tried to get up but simply ended up stranded on his back like an over-turned turtle.

Shaking his head violently Ricky excused, "Sorry man, still in... 'battle mode' I guess I should call it if I have to give it a name."

Josh turned quiet again as he remembered Ricky's earlier explanation, "Oh yeah... You're still a dick though." He smiled up towards his new and strange friend.

"I know." Ricky smiled as he offered his hand to help Josh up, which he accepted and was pulled to his feet once more. "Now can someone explain to me what's so damn important about what I'm wearing?" Ricky pleaded once more he looked down at his clothes.

Tseng decided to answer to save from Josh's exaggerated explanation, "Simply put it is a SOLDIER uniform, Josh here is a SOLDIER Second Class, the second best there is, you can tell from the purple. What you're wearing is black, which is the colour of the First Class SOLDIERS, the most powerful members of SOLDIER, and probably the rank of the single most powerful people on the planet. So you can see why Josh might get upset with you wearing something that in terms of rank would put you above him." Ricky threw a cocky smile at Josh.

"You make a joke about you being above me and I don't care what state I'm in, I will batter you like a fish..." Josh's tone made sure there would be no joking on the matter of rank any time soon from Ricky... or else.

"Well, I'm not from this... soldier or whatever, nor do I feel the need to address them in full caps, so is it cool if I keep the uniform? I like how it looks and it's easy to move in." Ricky inquired.

'_Full caps? What?_' Tseng blinked in confusion but shook it off before anyone noticed.

"Hmm... OK, fine, since you're not from SOLDIER I'll let you live for wearing it. Also, just so you know, I do feel the need for full caps, it's how it's meant to be." Josh answered Ricky, both nodding in agreement and laughing.

'_Note to self; Look up any intrinsic meaning of the term 'full caps'..._' Tseng had his eyes closed in obvious confusion.

"Well Tseng, we're waiting." Josh pointed out.

Opening his eyes but keeping the confusion, "Waiting for what?" Tseng asked.

"You said there was a reason for this trap of a test you stuck us in." Ricky expanded on the question for Josh.

"Oh... Right." Tseng took a moment to collect himself back to his usual calm self, "This could take a while to get through, so let's go somewhere not covered in mechanical debris, shall we?" Tseng turned and motioned for them to follow.

Ricky turned and cupped a hand to his mouth near Josh's ear to whisper, "You don't think he'll spring another 'test' on us where ever he's taking us do you?"

"I doubt it, but I didn't expect anything that's happened today so I'm not even counting out meteors falling from the sky today." Josh replied jokingly with a laugh for good measure.

Both unsure of what to come they followed Tseng out of the room using the doorway that had recently had it's door 'unlocked' and began to navigate through the maze of the facility once again.

* * *

**And there you have it! I feel like I've improved at least a little in how I write so throw a review my way if you agree... or not, it's really up to you.**

**My cat has had a real issue with me writing this story as at least three times she's lay on my keyboard when I'm trying to type... Little fur ball's lucky it's so damn cute.**

**Anyway, I'm beat so I'm going to bed.**

**Peace, ]-[**


	3. Speciality

Disclaimer: Believe it or not, I still do not own Final Fantasy VII. If this fact ever changes then I would see to it personally that the game got a HD update. If not just to shut up the majority of the internet begging for it, then for the ludicrous amount of money that would be made with it... Oh well, I can dream can't I? Onwards!

**Chapter 3: Speciality**

* * *

Ricky found himself in a strange state of mind as he once again followed Tseng through the facility hallways. All of the anxiety and worries he had felt the first time he walked these halls had disappeared. His creeping doubts about Josh and Tseng had been quashed during the test in room D-13, where, despite the crazy situation, he felt he was actually getting to know them both better. Although he wouldn't admit it aloud, he actually quite liked them.

He quickly shook his head to force these thoughts to the back of his mind. Instead beginning to wonder where Tseng could possibly be leading them this time. After going from a massive bathroom, to a crazy bullet hell test chamber, he was hard pressed to even fathom where Tseng had in mind for their current destination.

Josh had a similar thought pattern, '_Well... At least when I'm not trying to kill him and he's not in his "battle mode" or whatever the hell he called it, he's actually not that bad of a guy, I guess... Tseng on the other hand... I swear if I have to go back into room D-13 ever again I'm going to have nightmares about it... Once was already too many times... What the hell is he concocting behind that dot on his forehead? Where the hell are we going?_'

Josh decided to voice at least the latter of his thoughts, "Hey Tse-"

"Where are we going?" Ricky interrupted bluntly.

Rolling his eyes to end in a glare at the back of Ricky's head, Josh re-evaluated his previous thoughts, '_Okay, scratch that... He's a dick even when he's normal... Go figure..._'

Ricky shot a small grin over his shoulder, clearly amused at Josh's annoyance, before looking back towards Tseng and continuing, "Seriously though... We've been walking for like ten minutes... And the last time I walked into a room you told me to, I got shot at by exactly 86 turrets..."

"You were keeping count? What the hell?" Josh tilted his head at the statement.

"Yes I was... I was also keeping track of how many times we got hit, care to take a guess?" As Josh opened his mouth to take a random stab in the dark for the numbers, Ricky cut him off once again, "I didn't get hit once... And _you_ somehow managed to get hit 23 times... Do you really move that slowly?"

"Okay... I call bullshit, there's no way you could possibly have been paying that much attention to everything... And I'm sure you must have got hit at least once." Josh didn't believe a word of it, everyone got hit at least once in that damnable room.

"I'm afraid he's right. The room was keeping track of such statistics, and he's surprisingly accurate... Like he said, Ricky didn't get hit once... Also I have to agree with him, even I know you're quicker than that..." Tseng corroborated Ricky's claims, much to Josh's amazement... And annoyance.

"Anyway, we're here." Tseng stopped outside one of the identical doors. Judging by the engraving above the door, this room was known as 'T-7', "And Josh, stop sulking. I get the feeling you're both going to enjoy this room."

Tseng's statement got Ricky and Josh to look at each other confused, before shooting each other a quick grin and turning into the room. Neither of them knew anything about this room, the 'T-' rooms were off limits to most people in the facility, so Josh had never been permitted access, and could only guess as to their contents.

Even after entering the rather spacious white room, Josh was none the wiser as to what these rooms were. '_Four white panelled walls, white panelled ceiling and a white tiled floor... Not fans of variation here, are they?_' It seemed the facility was anything but concerned with how dreary and similar all of it's rooms were. However this room was at least slightly less empty than D-13. Already risen from the floor were two large boxes, almost resembling stereotypical treasure chests. They were a light yellow with a red trim around their top edge, finally adding some colour to the featureless room, with a silver button at the top-front centre. These chests were lined up along the back wall of the room, spaced about a meter apart, with Tseng standing in front of the gap between them with his arms folded, looking back towards his confused underlings.

"Okay Tseng, spill it... What are you planning?" Josh asked as he walked past him to sit on the chest at Tseng's right.

"I think you've kept us in the dark long enough..." Ricky added, mimicking Josh and taking a seat upon the chest at Tseng's left.

"...Get... Off..." Tseng commanded as his eye twitched slightly.

"Yes, sir." They both jumped off of their respective seats and stood at attention. Neither of them could see his face, but the ominous air around him seemed to carry his annoyance just as well.

'_Idiots..._' Tseng shook his head and turned to face the motionless pair, '_Well at least they listen... They need some redeeming qualities, I suppose..._' He mentally smiled but kept his icy glare on the two. "Let's get down to business then... As I'm sure at least Ricky has gathered, the point of the previous exercise was to ascertain two things..." He held up a finger, "One; to test whether or not the pair of you had any form of tactical co-operation. From the state room D-13 was left in I'd say you at least have potential in that regard... But could definitely use some... Polish..." He held up a second finger, "And two; to gather information on each of your specialities."

"Specialities?" Josh questioned.

"He basically means he was testing what we're each good at... For some reason." Ricky simplified.

"Oh... Well why didn't he just say that?" Josh wondered aloud, motioning a shrug with his hands.

'_He did..._'

'_I did..._'

Ricky and Tseng both sighed and shook their heads simultaneously, "What?" Josh looked between the two in confusion at their synchronized actions.

"Never mind..." Tseng got back to the matter at hand, "Anyway, the test successfully showed us what you each focus on." He looked to Josh, "You are, for lack of a better term, a berserker... You see a target and rush headlong towards it, disregarding everything else until your current target is destroyed, wherein you immediately go after the next enemy you see... A very simple battle style, but very effective at obliterating targets as long as you are able to get in close..."

Josh chuckled slightly at being called a 'berserker'. He thought the word summed up how he went about things perfectly. After all, the very simple style of 'just hit it until it's dead or broken' had attained him the rank of SOLDIER Second Class, so he had to be doing something right. Right?

'_Yeah, I'd say that pretty much sums him up...' _Ricky agreed, looking over to Josh, then back at Tseng,_ 'My turn I guess... Let's see what he's got..._'

Tseng turned to Ricky and continued, "You, on the other hand, are the exact opposite... You keep your distance and provide assistance and tactics from afar, while also keeping track of everything taking place in a battle to fuel your strategies. A very patient and observant style... However without a weapon your long distance style depends solely on the actions of others... That..." Tseng motioned towards the chest at his left, "Is something we need to remedy."

Ricky shot a confused glance at the chest, then at Tseng, "For me? Why?"

"The moment you agreed to join us I've been thinking of ways to get you combat ready. You can dodge and avoid your opponents all you like, but currently you don't have any means to capitalize on this style... I think that's something this particular facility can help with." Tseng informed him, "Josh, you work to guard this place, could you explain it's purpose for us?"

"Umm..." Josh panicked at the sudden question, "The facility is... A research facility... I think." he smiled sheepishly hoping Tseng wouldn't tear into him about it. He really did hate paperwork.

'_Really Josh... Really? I gathered that much myself..._' Ricky palmed his face.

"...Well thank you for your very in depth explanation..." Tseng shook his head in disappointment, '_How did he ever manage to get this far with such negligence..._' a sigh escaped him, making Josh recoil slightly before choosing to ignore his carelessness, "Well I suppose he's not exactly wrong at least... Even if he is impressively vague... This facility is indeed a research facility. The research here is focused on one thing; finding new ways to militarise mako energy, and although the successful prototypes designed here are indeed powerful, they... Are not cost effective... At all... So most of the technology here is disregarded by Shin-Ra in favour of further funding their SOLDIER program..." He sighed, annoyed that not a single of his designs had been taken on by the higher ups, "...On the bright side however, this means that all of the prototypes here are in storage... And no one would be any the wiser if a few somehow went... Missing..." A visible smirk crept onto Tseng's face, as both Josh and Ricky realized his intentions.

"So, long-assed boring explanation aside; We get to play with some experimental toys, right?" Josh joked as he moved to the chest at Tsengs right.

"...Yes, I guess you could say that..." Tseng sighed, "The main point of the test was for me to see which of the prototypes would best suit each of you. After seeing the data I'm confident you will both enjoy your new... 'Toys'..."

"Okay, enough explaining..." Ricky finally spoke up, "You've built this up now, so let's see what's what already..." He grinned as he pressed the silver button on the chest. Josh pressed his own chest's button before quickly grinning towards each other.

The chests opened slowly to reveal their contents as both of their grins grew into full-blown smiles as they unknowingly shared the same thought, '_Oh hell yes..._'

XxX

(30 minutes later)

"Okay... This is going to take some getting used to..."

"...You... Have no right... To complain..."

"Oh come on, it can't have been that bad"

"...Fuck... You..."

Ricky was leaning against Josh's equipment chest, looking down it's now floor bound owner, taking great satisfaction from his friends suffering.

"Sorry about this Josh... But it really was the only prototype we had that suited your style... And you did say you could handle it... Quite confidently too..." Tseng had been tending to Josh for the past 20 minutes.

"When you said... It would be... Painful... I didn't think... You meant... It was going to... Forcibly enter my body and... Fuck around with my bones..." Josh managed to explain, finally finding his way to his feet with Ricky's help and regaining his composure.

"Hmm... Well you seem fine enough now." Tseng rose from his crouch to get a good look at the two, "Well well... You two definitely look... Different..."

The two's appearances had noticeably changed. Ricky now had thin, black metal gauntlets that covered both of his arms from his hand to just below his elbow, with a small spike protruding over his elbow. These gauntlets each had a blue, diamond shaped gem embedded on the back of the hands, alongside multiple glowing straight blue lines along the forearm sections. Similarly, his legs and feet were now clad in black metal boots up to his knees, overhanging at the front slightly and coming to a sharp point, blue gems on top of his feet and blue glowing lines rising up the metal. Attached to his back via his straps was now a single vertical sheath, housing two outward curving swords in a bowed 'V' like shape with the blades on the inside, the handles built into the outside just before the end edges.

Josh however looked pretty much the same... If you ignore the massive scars along his arms. He now wore black, fingerless leather gloves with metal studs at each of his knuckles. He no longer had a long sword at his back, instead now having a metal belt around his waist with a set of pouches built into it, sporting a glowing green square panel where the buckle would have been. Attached to this belt at his left hip was what looked like the red handle to a sword with a silver metal circle at it's base, but without a guard or even a blade present on the 'weapon'.

"I'd just like to point out this still hurts like hell..." Josh broke Tseng from his assessment of the two, "Seriously Tseng... I don't think cost was the reason they turned this one down... How the hell did you come up with this anyway?" He asked while working his arms to try to get used to the new feel of them.

"Well, we designed the gloves you now wear first; The metal knuckles are infused with a small but powerful quake materia each, the point being to increase the force of a punch to seismic levels, suffice to say it worked... But, although they work in theory, they also have a tendency to... Break all the users bones from the hand used to the shoulder..." Tseng closed his eyes for the latter of his explanation.

"Damn... Are these things that powerful?" Josh looked over his gloved hands.

"Yes, they are... Unfortunately there was no way for us to lower the recoil of the weapon while keeping them effectively destructive. So we decided to approach the problem from the opposite side; If we can't make the weapon weaker, we'll just have to make the users stronger..." Tseng reopened his eyes to see the scars upon Josh's arms, "The devices you attached to your person enter the users body and reinforce their skeletal structure to be able to withstand the feedback from the weapon... While this solution does provide the desired effect, alongside the bonus of having almost indestructible bones, the procedure of the device entering the body cannot be performed under anaesthetic, as it interferes with the body enough to disrupt the process catastrophically... We learnt that one the hard way..." Ricky and Josh cringed at their envisioning of the failed experiment, "So... As Josh has now had the displeasure of experiencing... The procedure must be done while fully conscious, and while no one has died this way... The procedure usually leaves the user paralysed by pain for over a month... I'm extremely impressed you can even talk at the moment, let alone stand..." Tseng complimented.

"I told you; There's nothing I can't handle... A bit better warning next time though, yeah?" Josh smirked in part joke and part pain.

"Okay, we're very impressed, now can you explain something for me?" Ricky cut in, holding up his gauntleted arms, looking between them and his boots, "What are these for? They may be light but they still weigh me down, I won't be able to manoeuvre properly with these on..."

Tseng turned to the newly armoured man, "Ah, those... I think they'll make a lot more sense when you turn the power on." He hinted with a small frown.

"Turn the power on..." Ricky looked all over his metallic appendages, searching naively for an 'on off' switch, "Umm... Tseng... What power?"

Tseng began walking towards the back wall, "I think I'll let you know that when I'm out of the room..."

A set of the back walls panels moved to reveal a doorway into the control chamber of the room, which Tseng promptly entered, the panels returning to their original positions soon after. A moment later a large panelled section slid away to reveal the glass to the control room. Normal glass this time, as they could see Tseng flipping a few switches on a panel.

"Oh for gods sake... Tseng! Not this crap again..." Josh yelled at the glass.

As Tseng took a seat he put on a headset and microphone while speakers appeared from the walls either side of the glass, "**Calm down Josh, this room isn't going to shoot you. It's just a lot... Safer for me to instruct you on your equipment further from in here...**"

"He has a point" Ricky nodded to himself, "Think about it... We totally wrecked the last chamber with nothing more than your sword and my bare hands..."

"**Exactly... I'm not sure even being in here is sufficient enough protection... But we won't know how well you can use your new tools without testing them first, will we?**" Tseng added, letting a slight trace of excitement escape him as he pressed a button, making the empty chests close themselves and descend away into the floor. Pressing another button he let out an actual smile, "**Let's get to the fun stuff then... Shall we?**"

XxX

(5 seconds later...)

"Damn it... Tseng! Stop pressing buttons!" Josh shouted, once again flat on his back.

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad..." Ricky condescended from his perched position on a platform above him.

The room had transformed drastically, the room was now full of multi-hight, cube-shaped platforms and connecting ramps that had rose from the floor. Ricky had felt the room begin to move and jumped to the air before the ground shot up, landing on a newly risen small, but high, platform in a crouch.

Josh however had not been as agile, being slammed into the quickly moving panel as it rose beneath him, putting him in an annoying state of deja-vu.

"**Sorry about that... I guess I just like pressing buttons...**" Tseng scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

'_Well, Tseng's definitely in a good mood..._'Ricky sweat dropped with a worried grin, '_It's kinda scary actually..._'

"You're a lot happier than usual Tseng..." Josh cringed slightly, "Should we be running?"

"**Well it's not every day I get to see my hard worked on designs in use...**"Tseng justified himself, "**How are things down there by the way?**"

"Well... I can definitely say the 'kin-'... 'Kinat-'..." Josh struggled.

"**The 'kinetic dampeners'?**" Tseng helped him along.

"Yeah! Those damnable things... They certainly work..." Josh laughed as he sprang to his feet, "I didn't feel a thing."

"**Well that's good to hear. Everything feel good with you up there?**" Tseng looked up to the gargoyle-like Ricky.

"Huh? Oh... Yeah, I'm fine. These things didn't slow me down at all oddly enough..." He shot a strangely serious stare towards Tseng, "Okay, enough stalling... What are these?"

"**They're called 'accelerators'... Care to take a guess at what they do?**" Tseng smirked, getting a deadpan stare in return, "**Fine... I'll do it the boring way...**" Ricky's stare was replaced by a quick nod and child-like smile, "**The armour you currently have on is the fruits of our research into mako enhancements. Simply put, we were finding ways to augment people via use of materia powered armour, such as those you now wear. Unfortunately...**" Tseng paused, resting his arms on the control panel and crossing his fingers in front of his face, "**They don't work...**"

Josh fell over once again as Ricky fell off his perch, "What! What do you mean they don't work?" Ricky raved as he quickly got to his feet.

"**Ahem...**" Tseng cleared his throat, "**What I meant was they don't work... Yet... The basic principle behind them works, but we couldn't find a suitable way to power them. No materia we tested worked, so they were deemed a failed experiment... That was... Until you showed up...**"

'_What? Me?_' A clear look of confusion swept over Ricky.

"**The moment you stepped inside this facility the white gems that were meant to channel the materia began to turn blue... So I ordered them here to see if it really was you they were ****reacting to... And, believe it or not, as soon as you put them on they began glowing... This is the exact reaction we were testing for originally...**" Tseng stared at Ricky with crushing seriousness, "**Ricky... When did this happen?**"

"When did... What happen?" Ricky tilted his head in bewilderment.

"**You... Don't know?**" Tseng had true concern upon his face, "**Ricky... You have a very powerful and unique bolt materia upon your person...**" Ricky began searching his pockets to find nothing, "**You won't find it there... Ricky... Somehow... You have a materia... **_**Inside**_** you... Inside your chest to be specific... Ricky, what happened to you?**"

Words could not describe the emotion Ricky felt upon hearing this. A flurry of confusion, dread, panic, sadness, fear, anger, grief, hate and innumerable others flew through his mind. '_What? How... When? How long have I had this? What the hell is it doing there? Is it harmful? Ah!_' He gripped the sides of his head with his hands, trying to quell the pressure he felt inside, to no avail, '_No... Why? Damn!_'

"Ricky!" He turned his head to meet the voice slowly, his eyes growing wide as he saw what was coming.

"GRIT THOSE TEETH!"

A single punch to the face from Josh sent Ricky flying over ten feet across the room, slamming him into a raised wall where he stopped and slumped.

"Calmed down yet?" Josh rose from the arch his punch had left him in as he shook out his hand before clenching it to a fist, "And god _damn_ it felt good to finally hit you..."

Ricky, miraculously still conscious, managed to raise his head. Just enough to deliver Josh a deadly stare that could slice through steel... Before lowering his head to rest, '_What the... He could have broken my neck with that!_'

"Don't get mad at me! You needed to snap out of that and fast..." Josh defended himself, "So what if you've got a materia inside you? Think about it logically for just a second 'Mr. Tactician', have you noticed anything up until now from it? Why do you think it's suddenly a problem?" Ricky pushed himself against the wall, using it to help him keep his balance as he found his feet, "And think about it this way; If that thing's really as rare and powerful as Tseng says, then chances are it's one of a kind, who cares how it got there? You're lucky to have it, and because of it you can use that fancy armour you've got on. Stop worrying about the why and how, turn this thing you have into your power! Who the hell do you think you are?" Ricky locked eyes with Josh, "You're Ricky. As far as I'm concerned some weird thing in your chest isn't going to change that fact. So can we get back to business here, or are you gonna continue to be a little bitch? Because I can hit you again if it'd help..."

Ricky grinned to himself, '_I'm Ricky, huh? Hmph... You gave me that name just today, yet you already put that much worth behind it?_' He pushed off from the wall, stumbling slightly as he regained his full balance, '_Yeah... He may be short tempered, annoying and at times downright __crazy... But he's a good person at heart... I'll return that damn speech someday, Josh... You can count on it..._'

Ricky slowly walked to meet Josh, neither of them breaking their glare, "...I needed that..." Ricky thanked him, putting out his fist.

"Now that's more like it!" Josh smiled at met Ricky's fist with his own for a true bro-fist.

XxX

(20 seconds later)

"**Ahem!**"

Both of their attentions were drawn to the large pane of glass, through which Tseng had his face palmed in his hand, "**I'm glad it got him back to normal and all... But that was the single cheesiest thing I've **_**ever**_** seen, bar none. Sure you two don't want some alone time for a while? Because I could come back later if you'd like.**" Tseng couldn't contain his laughter towards the end.

"Fuck!"

"You!"

They yelled one after another at the hysteric Turk. (Hysteric for Tseng being mild laughter.)

"**Oh my... Excuse me, I don't know what came over me...**" Tseng took a moment to collect himself, sniggering slightly before repressing his smile away completely, "**Anyway... If you two are quite done, can we get back to the task at hand please?**"

Ricky and Josh nodded to each other, mentally agreeing, '_We'll get him back for that later... He won't know when or how... But it's coming..._' Before both nodding towards Tseng.

A shiver crept down the Turk's back, '_Why do I get the feeling I'm going to pay for that later..._'

"Right... Sorry about my mini-breakdown... So, could you finish explaining what these 'accelerators' actually do? I get that I can power them with this 'materia' thing I've got but I don't know how to use it. I didn't even know I had it, never mind knowing how to work it..." Ricky felt at his chest, not quite sure how to feel about this 'new' addition to his body, but he had at the very least accepted it.

"**Don't fret the details too much at the moment. I'm working on ways to train you how to use it properly. For now, all I know is that you have actually been using it already; Whenever you've been in 'battle mode' you seem to subconsciously draw from it to increase your thinking and movement speed.**" Tseng began to inform the attentive pair, "**Ironically; This boost in speed is similar to what we designed the 'accelerators' to do, but we were after extreme levels. I believe eventually, when you have full control over your materia 'core', you will be able to amplify your speed and strength at least ten fold.**"

"I... Think I understand... So they just boost my speed... 'Accelerators'... Imaginative here in this facility aren't we?" Ricky chuckled but looked at his hands in understanding.

"**Your part right... We name them after what they do, what would you prefer we call them? ****The... Umm...**" Tseng drew a blank.

"The 'Arms of the Light Brigade'..." Josh aided, laughing slightly at Tsengs expense.

"**Yeah... Sure, why not... You get the point. I thought it would be easier to pitch prototypes to ****Shin-Ra if things just do what they say on the tin, as it were... However you are still only part right...**" Tseng smirked towards Ricky, "**You said that they '**_**just**_**' make you faster... This is not true... In fact, they do quite a few other things.**"

"Such as?" Ricky queried plainly.

"**Well, since you can't control your 'core' well, if at all, you won't have full access to their abilities yet. The main thing that they also do, alongside boosting your speed and strength is; They allow you to channel the materia's element through them. Now Josh don't start saying you can already use materia fine, that's not the point here. Any SOLDIER that has graduated the academy can **_**use**_** materia. The accelerators allow the user to manipulate and control the element to a much greater degree. For example; Josh, you could use a normal bolt materia to shoot a bolt of lightning at something and that's about it, right?**" Tseng prompted.

"Yeah, pretty much. They taught us basic materia use in the final year, but I've never been great with the stuff..." Josh confirmed.

"**I see... Now in Ricky's case, when he has full access to his materia, he will be able to manipulate the lightning to his will. The only thing that will limit his powers at that point will be his imagination**" Tseng outlined for an increasingly exited Ricky.

"Now that... Sounds awesome!" Ricky exclaimed, ecstatic at the idea of an array of cool powers he could think of. "Oh yeah..." He stopped celebrating, reaching to his back with his right hand and grabbing the handle of one of the blades attached to him, "What are these?"

"**Ignore that for now, just get used to carrying it around, make it feel natural having it there. Movement is your most valuable tool, so you have to be completely comfortable while carrying it.**" Tseng dodged the question for the time being, "**And before you ask... Josh, the same goes for the handle on your belt. Just get used to moving around with it there.**"

"I had a feeling you'd say that..." Josh ran his hand over the red handle at his hip, "Well that's all the new stuff covered if you're not letting us play with these at the moment... So what now?" He wondered out loud.

"**Well, as you might have guessed, this room is somewhat of an obstacle course, or as we like to call it; the 'free-running' arena. For the next hour or so all I want you to focus on is moving around with your new equipment. Do what you like as long as it keeps you moving. Play a game of tag or something for all I care, just get moving naturally with your equipment.**" Tseng smirked at his ending joke.

Josh and Ricky looked at each other and laughed at the idea of playing tag. A children's game as a training exercise, yeah right...

The two slowly ceased laughing, their looks slowly shifting to battle ready glares as they lowered themselves into their stances, looking ready to move at a moments notice.

"**Oh no... You're not actually going to-**"

"Ricky's it!"

"**And... There they go...**" Tseng palmed his face once more as the two began blitzing around the room, '_Oh well... It got them moving at least, I guess..._'

* * *

**And there you have it! **

**Really struggled writing towards the beginning of this chapter, but after a nights sleep I finally got into a zone and things started to flow pretty well. Guess I shouldn't always try to write my chapters by way of all nighters, but I do my best work at night...**

**One thing I want to clear up, just in case there's any confusion on the matter: In _this_ story, materia is used by equipping it to armour and weapons, like how I imagined they worked in FFVII. It is not like Advent Children, where materia being in the body is natural. Hence why Ricky's materia 'core' is a big deal.**

**And it's official, from this point onward I'm going to record the things my cat does while I'm trying to write... Seriously, I write on my bed usually which is where she sleeps, and she just comes and sits on my laptop whenever I start writing... I thought I'd try writing somewhere else (you know, move around with a laptop like you're meant to instead of just lying in bed) so I started writing in the living room instead... And she STILL hunts me down and sits on me whenever I'm typing... I swear she's either really interested in this story, or she's just magnetically attracted to people trying to get work done... Trolling cat, we can't all be as lazy as you and get away with it... Won't stop me trying though.**

**Anyway, enough rambling about my cat. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Hit me up with a review if you could spare a minute, you'd be surprised how well I take feedback. Good or bad, just let me know what you think. I'm out.**

**Peace, ]-[**


	4. Everyday Combat

Disclaimer: I really don't own Final Fantasy VII, and I'm not happy that I feel the need to keep stating this annoying fact but oh well... Copyrights a bitch. Anyway, ONWARDS!

**Chapter 4: Everyday Combat**

* * *

'_How much longer are they going do this.._' The lone thought drifted through Tseng's mind once more. He had been having this particular thought for the past half an hour. He was currently face down on his control panel resting his forehead on his arms out of boredom. His seemingly harmless joke about a game of tag had come back to bite him, as the pair of blurs he was now attempting to ignore had taken quite a liking to the gag idea. So much so that they had been rushing around the room for the best part of two hours since Tseng had opened his big mouth. '_They have to be getting tired... I'm tired just watching them... They can't keep this pace up any more, surely..._' Tseng raised his head just enough to look through the window in front of him, before sighing and slamming his forehead back down on the desk, '_OK... Maybe they can..._'

Josh and Ricky had been navigating their way over the uneven platforms that made up the room, one trying to catch the other before repeating the process in reverse. Over the two hours that had past they had caught each other only nine times each, and despite the pace Ricky was now able to move at in his new equipment while he pursued the fleeing Josh, he could feel himself slowing down, '_I'm getting tired... Sure these Accelerator things may speed me up slightly, but without knowing how to control this 'materia' thing that's powering them it's draining me dry just moving... I've gotta end this now!_'

Josh had never been the quickest of people. Sure he was rather fast by normal standards, but by the standard of other SOLDIERS he was by no means spectacular, '_Damn... I could barely keep up with this guy, a normal civilian... bar the thing in his chest, even before he got his new 'toys'... The pace he's moving at now is crazy... I've only been able to avoid him this long because he can't work that armour well yet... That and the fact that I can take the fall from drops he can't thanks to my bones now being awesome! If I couldn't carelessly throw myself around like this I'd never be able to keep him off me..._' Josh quickly threw himself down a good twenty foot drop, shrugging off the force of the impact as if it were nothing and continued running onward.

Ricky however had to find a safer way down. Sure he could probably survive the drop, but he wouldn't be able to take the brunt of the fall and keep moving like Josh had. Not stopping to think, he continued past where Josh had leapt and wall-ran a short gap in the platforms, before jumping at a 90 degree angle from the wall onto a lower platform, getting him back in line with Josh, albeit still a good distance above him. '_I need a way down... Come on!_' He franticly searched the room, eventually spotting a ramp further down. Starting only six feet off the ground, at an angle he could easily take no damage from and possibly even keeping his momentum going by sliding down it. However, it just so happened to be on the other side of the massive, trench-like gap that Josh was currently running through the bottom of. '_It's my best chance... Time to nut up or shut up!_' With that Ricky swiftly ran diagonally up the wall he was adjacent with, kicking off as he reached the limit of his gravity ignoring manoeuvre.

Josh chose now to check on the whereabouts of his pursuer. '_What the hell!_' Was the only thought he was allowed time to conjure, spotting the airborne Ricky sailing overhead.

"Oh sh-"

"Oh fu-"

Tseng rose from his daze at a crashing noise to notice he couldn't spot any movement in the room, or even see Ricky or Josh anywhere for that matter. "**OK... That's enough of that...**" Pressing one of the numerous buttons in front of him he changed the room back to its normal, uniform state. After the platforms had returned to their original places Tseng was met with the sight of what looked like a pile of limbs laying on the floor. "**Umm... What happened?**" A confused Tseng managed to ask.

"Ah... Sorry about that... Guess I can't get enough kick out of these things yet, my bad." Ricky chuckled sheepishly as he got off of Josh and found his way to his feet.

"Wait, so you weren't actually planning on dive bombing me? Where were you aiming?" A seemingly unfazed Josh rolled over and popped up off his back to his feet. Ricky scratched the back of his head and pointed to the ramp he was initially aiming for, "Seriously? You were nowhere close! A cool idea. Unrealistic... But cool." Josh didn't think Ricky had it in him to try something that risky, and was somewhat impressed that he had even tried.

"Unrealistic maybe, but I still caught your indestructible ass. That's ten to me." Ricky donned a cocky smile in victory.

"You what?" Josh quickly lowered himself ready to give chase, "We'll see about th-"

"**No Josh...**"

Josh tripped up as he went to begin running, "What? Why?"

"**Look, I wasn't being serious about this game to begin with...**"Tseng folded his arms as he complained, "**I was expecting a quick half an hour run around for you to get used to things. Not the over two hour game you just had. Enough is enough, or do you not want to move on?**"

Ricky and Josh looked at each other before turning back to the glass, "Move on to what?" They simultaneously asked.

A sly smile was the only response Tseng gave the inquisitive two, as once again he pushed a button, '_I really do love buttons._'

XxX

(10 Seconds Later)

"Dude..." Josh felt a poking at his shoulder but ignored it, as he had his eyes closed and was actively bracing himself, ready for the impact of a panel meeting his back once again, "Dude..." Another poke to his arm, but he refused to react to it. He'd been caught off guard by this room once before, and he wasn't letting it happen again, "Oi! Knob end!"

Josh flung his eyes open and swung madly towards where the voice had originated, his gloved fist meeting with and shattering what it made contact with, "Oh crap... Hey are you O... K... Wait a minute..."

"Over here, you wimp." Josh swung about to see Ricky leaning with his arm on the shoulder of a flat, human silhouette target, noticing he had just destroyed one exactly like it, "Really, you'd think he'd not be such a girl about things with indestructible bones and all. You know what I mean Foderus?" Ricky joked with the inanimate target, receiving a sarcastic smile from said 'girl'.

"Yeah yeah, very funny." Josh sighed as he made his way over to the target, "What are these things anyway? Are these really all that changed this time?" He wondered aloud as he began inspecting the target, soon noticing that 'Foderus' wasn't alone.

"**I know I've given you good reason to think so, but these rooms aren't always trying to attack ****you Josh...**" Said SOLDIER smirked sheepishly before Tseng continued, "**These are standard issue training targets. Although they're used mainly for practising the use of guns, they ****should serve well enough to test your new weapons.**" Tseng motioned towards where the two were stood, pointing out the row of identical targets along the left side wall, "**The targets along the wall will be used by Ricky to get accustomed to his materia core and new weapon.**" Then looking to the right of the room, where there were numerous targets scattered around in no real defined pattern, "**The targets over there are for Josh to familiarize himself with his new weapon without you getting in each others way.**" The two nodded towards their boss and made their way to their designated areas, both content with their new tasks.

"Finally... I get to hit stuff." Josh was ecstatic at the prospect of getting to punch his way through some training. He wanted to let off some steam, and while running around was fun, it didn't have the same effect as putting fist to face in his opinion.

"**No Josh...**"

Josh stumbled over himself as he was about to plough through his second victim of the 'Foderus' family, "God damn it! What now?" A familiar sense of deja vu began to frustrate him.

"**Look, we already know you can punch things... We really don't need to waste training time and resources with you doing something you're already good at, do we?**" Josh calmed himself as Tsengs words made a fair point, "**Instead, let's get you used to something new.**"

'_Something... New? What else do I have other than the quake gloves?_' Josh pondered as the both Ricky and Tseng stared at him, waiting for him to realize, '_...Gloves, check... Utility belt, check... Damnable things currently making my bones bad ass, check..._' The now bored pair palmed their faces, "Oh!" The two snapped their attention back to Josh, now holding a red leather handle in his right hand, "You mean this thing, right? This is a weapon?"

'_Well what do you know... He's not stupid... Just a little... Slow._' Tseng smirked to himself, "**Yes, it is indeed a weapon, one it may take longer to get used to that you think.**" Josh began looking the 'weapon' over in his hand, confused as to what it was meant to do.

"Umm... Tseng? How am I meant to hurt people with this? Ricky gets two massive swords and metal armour... I get a foot long stick..." Josh complained in confusion.

"You're the first person I've ever heard complain about having a foot long 'stick'..." Ricky laughed to himself, even forcing a slight smirk from Tseng.

"**Trust me, that 'stick' is no joke...**" Tseng became serious once again, "**Josh, hold it like a sword handle, so that the metal is at the base of the hilt.**" Josh promptly did as instructed, wondering what this 'weapon' was, "**Point the end away from you and focus on the handle. Try to act as if you were preparing to use a materia equipped to it... Then just watch...**"

Josh nodded to himself before holding the red handle outwards and beginning to focus on it as Tseng had suggested.

For a moment, nothing.

'_Hmm... I'm trying to focus, but it's different from trying to use a normal equipped materia.. I can feel something in there but it's strange... Maybe if I try it like I was using a 'ra' materia..._' Josh tried again, focusing similarly to using a more powerful form of materia.

Still nothing.

'_Seriously? Not good enough, huh... Something in there's defiantly reacting to me, but still..._' Josh closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "_OK... I've only ever used one once... And it didn't end too well... But let's step this up to 'aga'!_' Josh pushed his terrible materia skills to the limit and focused as if to use the most powerful form of elemental materia.

Opening his now slightly glowing eyes in a flash the handle's base opened and began to whir like a jet engine, rapidly sucking in air. An extremely thin, telescopic tube shot out of the top of the hilt, ending up at around the same length as his previous long sword. As soon as the tube had extended, tiny holes along it began to expel a flaring, airy substance that quickly became dense and seemed to become almost solid, forming a radiant green blade along the edge of the tube.

"Well... If nothing else it's... Flashy..." Ricky joked, although he was honestly impressed at the now formidable looking weapon.

"**Shin-Ra technology at it's finest... Or it would be if it wasn't so expensive to manufacture at least...**" Tseng was clearly annoyed that none of his facilities brilliance had ever been taken on due to costs, and perhaps the fact that the firaga materia that powered this one in particular wasn't exactly easy to find, "**It's called the 'Abaraxas', or 'Ax' for short. It's a materia powered, telescopic plasma blade. When the firaga materia is activated, a mechanism intakes air and propels the magnetised nano-tube outwards, before shooting out super heated air as plasma that is held in place and made dense by the magnetic propert-**"

"Tseng... Shut up..."

"**Wha-**"

"Look... You just handed me a _fucking._ _Laser._ S_word_... I do not, want to know how it works... I do not, want to hear why it works... And I _really_ do not want to hear _you_ explaining any of the science that went into it..." Josh ranted with his eyes fixed on his flaring blade.

"**It... It's a 'plasma' sword... Not a 'laser' swo-**" Tseng attempted to correct.

"WHAT, Did I just say? No explaining! I just want to fuck stuff up with this!" Josh raved, absolutely beaming with excitement at the single best weapon he'd ever seen, let alone held.

"**...Fine... Go nuts...**" Tseng begrudgingly gave him the go ahead, "**One thing though...**"

"God damn it I said no expl-"

"**This is important.**" Tsengs tone got Josh to calm himself, albeit slightly, "**I know you have combat-ready sword skills, but this is no ordinary sword as I'm sure you've noticed.**"

'_Kinda hard to miss..._' Was the shared thought of all three.

"**Because the blade is made up of what is essentially 'very hot' air, there is little to no weight where the blade would usually be.**" Josh finally began to understand Tseng's warning as he moved the sword around. It was amazingly light, but this was more a negative thing than a positive. Josh had been trained with normally, weighty blades. He could very well maim, if not outright kill himself if he wasn't careful with this. "**I see you that realize the implications of this difference... ****Just take it slow and get used to swinging it without over-exerting yourself. It takes much less force for the Ax to cut through targets compared to your old sword. Focus on becoming more accurate than powerful with your swings. You have your quake gloves for raw power, this weapon demands a lighter approach.**"

"Why did you give me a weapon that needed accuracy, when you yourself said I was a 'berserker'? I'm not complaining... Just wondering." Josh rightfully pointed out Tsengs contradicting logic.

"He's got a point... It seems more like my weapon I'll be honest." Ricky added, with a valid point, but he really just wanted to have a laser sword. It wasn't just Josh who was awe struck by it's awesomeness.

"**There are two reasons for each question actually.**" Tseng closed his eyes, a tell-tale sign of an incoming lengthy explanation, "**Ricky, we couldn't give you Abaraxas because you don't primarily fight up close, alongside the fact that you have no conscious materia using experience. If a fully trained SOLDIER struggled to activate it then I doubt you could manage to even turn it on...**"

"_And_ it's MINE!"

A sharp silence took hold of the room for a moment.

"**...Moving on...**" Tseng sighed at Josh's subtle and very complex reasoning for why Ricky couldn't use it, "**As for why we gave it to Josh at all, I thought it wouldn't hurt to forcefully improve his accuracy through use of this weapon. But the main reason is...**" Both Ricky and Josh had there full attention on Tseng, "**...Something I can't tell you.**"

"...Not a fan of giving us all of the information are you Tseng? Despite how long you talk for you barely ever finish your explanations..." Ricky joked with his head in his hand.

"Oh, who cares..." Josh had turned towards one of the myriad of targets behind him, "I said I just wanted to hit stuff so let me get to it. Don't worry, I'll be careful... I may be reckless, but I'm not stupid. I don't wanna lose a limb playing around with this thing." Josh rather calmly stated while moving into his stance, before slowly rending a target in half. '..._This may take a while to get used to..._'

The newly slain brother of Foderus soon descended into the panelled floor, and much like the turrets from room D-13, were soon replaced with fresh new targets in their place. So, Josh set about moving from one target to the next, trying out different speeds and styles of swings as he worked his way through the stationary and regenerating masses.

"Ahem!" Josh spared Ricky a glance before returning to his drawn-out massacre, "OK Tseng, my turn... I asked before but I think I'll get an answer this time." Ricky grabbed the handle over his right shoulder, "What is this thing? Because it had better be damn good, because anything less than a laser sword and I'm not going to be happy..."

"It's MINE!" Both Ricky and Tseng just ignored Josh's thoughtful addition to the conversation.

"**Umm... Sorry Ricky... I can't let you use that yet...**" Tseng apologised, getting a deadly glare from Ricky, "**Look, suffice to say it won't work until we get you able to use the Accelerators first, and by the same token the Accelerators won't work properly until we get you familiar with how to use your materia core. Understand?**" Tseng justified on why he yet again had to deny Ricky his new weapon.

'_How annoyingly ironic... I've gotta learn how to use something old that I didn't even know I had in order to use something new that I want to use now..._' Ricky philosophised to himself. "Right... So how are we going to teach my how to use my core... And how am I fine with saying that already?" Ricky felt his chest and grinned. He had fully come to terms with his 'gift', wanting to master it, to make it a part of himself, rather than an unwanted addition.

"**Like I said earlier, I was thinking of a way to train you to use it.**" Tseng's smirk let on that he had been successful, "**Now that you mention it... He should be here soon...**"

"He?" Even Josh ceased to ask in unison with Ricky.

"**Your materia 'tutor'...**" Tseng smiled, getting a confused but exited reaction from Ricky.

Moments later, a set of loud thuds knocked at the entrance to the room.

"**Ah, that should be him.**" Tseng pressed a button, unlocking and opening the door to the room, "**Glad you could make it. Come on in.**"

The confused pair looked towards the open door, impatiently wondering who was entering.

Echoing footsteps rang out through the silent room.

"How have you been, Josh?"

"...Josh? You know this guy?" Ricky looked over to a jaw dropped Josh, who was simply staring at the new arrival.

"**Josh... You all right?**" Tseng was also concerned over Josh's frozen reaction.

'_OK... Who is this guy? And why has he stuck Josh in place?_' Ricky inspected the newest arrival to the room. He quickly realized that all of them, excluding the on in the control centre, were each wearing near identical uniforms, Ricky himself being the only one in black.

Josh slowly powered down the Ax and reattached it to his belt, before walking ominously towards the mystery person.

'_Well, he's moving... That's a start... He looks almost annoyed, have these two fought before or someth-_'

"Zack!"

Before Ricky could finish his train of though, Josh had glomped the now titled Zack, who promptly grappled Josh into a playful headlock and began to ruffle the trapped SOLDIERS hair, "Hey, you crazy fucker! Still jumping on people as a greeting I see... I haven't seen you since we left the academy, what have you been up to?"

"Well... I _had _been guarding this place up until a few hours ago..." Josh wrestled his way from his old friends grasp before pointing to Ricky, "That changed when this damned hobo showed up..."

"I'm a wanderer, you bastard..." Ricky threw a deadpan stare towards the misinforming Josh, before turning to Zack, "Well, looks like you two know each other... Names Ricky, as of six hours ago."

"Huh? Six hours ago, what? Why is he in a First Class uniform?" Zack turned to his friend in confusion.

"...It's a long story... Don't worry about it..." Josh patted Zack on the shoulder, "What are you doing here anyway? Last I heard you were being trained by Angeal over in the SOLDIER building. Wish I could get trained by a First..." Josh mind went off on a tangent.

"Yeah, Angeal's trying to get me up to First class, but he says I've got a long way to go still..." Zack crossed his arms as he confirmed the hearsay story from Josh, "My reason for being here's pretty similar actually. My higher ups got a call from a Turk... Turns out they needed an off duty SOLDIER to teach someone how to use materia, and Angeal thought it would be a different, but useful form of training, so he volunteered me..." He put his arms out in a show-boating fashion, "And, here I am. SOLDIER Second Class Zack, on the job!"

"...**Thank you for your time... Zack, was it?**" Tseng was grateful for a Second Class, he would have settled for any form of SOLDIER, getting a high class one was an unexpected bonus, even if his introduction was a little boisterous. "**Ricky here will be your 'student' for the next week. I hope you two can co-operate to at least get him able to properly use low level materia. Good luck...**" Tseng, his work over sans for overseeing the training, sat back in his chair and relaxed. Despite not training himself, he was tired from all of the explaining and arduous button pressing. So he decided to give this new SOLDIER free reign over the proceedings, while he had a well earned break.

"Wait... You're gonna be here for a week?" Josh questioned as he began flipping the Ax's handle in his hand.

"Yeah, you heard him right." Zack nodded with his head towards said Turk before expanding, "The mission documents stated: 'A member of SOLDIER was to stay within a certain facility for the duration of a week, in order to teach a novice basic materia usage.' This place is apparently self-sustaining and actually has quite a few spare rooms, even if they are for experiment volunteers... Two of these rooms are being converted into normal bedrooms for myself and my 'student' to occupy for the duration of my time here." Zack finished his recital of his mission details.

"You actually pay that much attention to paperwork?" A rather surprised Josh wondered.

"Of course I do... Most of the time... How am I going to get to First Class if I don't know what my missions are in detail?" Zack shrugged.

'_Huh, I thought it might have just been a 'soldier' thing to not pay attention to their missions... At least this Zack guy seems to be on the ball. More so than Josh at least, but that's not difficult I've noticed..._' Ricky adjusted his general opinion on SOLDIERS, "So... You're here to teach me then?" He put forward an open hand, "Go easy on me... I really have no experience with this 'materia' stuff."

Zack quickly took up and vigorously shook Ricky's hand, "Go easy on me too... I'm no teacher, but I'll try my best to get you throwing fire and lightning out of your hands in no time!" He let go of the handshake and the pair shared a fist bump before laughing.

'_Well, they look like they'll get along fine... I'll leave them to it..._' A lesser person would be envious of their old time friend focusing on someone they had just met more that him, only Josh wasn't that shallow. Also, more importantly, he had more pressing matters on his mind, '_Now... Back to laser sword!_'

With that Josh began walking back to his own training area, activating Abaraxas to begin dissecting the helpless mob of targets once more.

"That laser sword is awesome by the way." Zack pointed in amazement.

"**...It's not- You know what? Never mind...**"

"You hear something?" Zack turned to his 'pupil', who simply shook his head, "Huh... Fair enough. In any case, you ready to get started?" Zack grinned as he received an enthusiastic nod, "Good, I like that spirit... Now, if you really have never used a materia before there are a few basics we're going to have to get out of the way first..." Zack crossed his arms and closed his eyes, trying to think up the easiest way to begin explaining.

"Oh no..." Zack opened his eyes to see Ricky palming his face, "I know that look... It's usually followed by a ten minute, boring, scientific explanation of something I don't care about..." Zack threw a deadpan look through the window to see an unimpressed Turk scowling at Ricky.

'_Ah... I get the idea... Poor guys..._' Zack raised his head in understanding, before turning back to Ricky and reaching into his pocket, "OK, I take it you're not one for words... So I guess you'd rather learn by doing, right?" Ricky smirked in confirmation, as Zack pulled a yellow orb from his pocket and held it in front of him, scratching the back of his head bashfully with his empty hand, "Well, that makes two of us... I really couldn't remember the original 'seminar on materia use' for the life of me... Teaching you like this should be much easier for both of us."

Ricky took the yellow orb that Zack offered him and stared into it, "So... This is a 'materia', huh? Didn't think they'd be yellow, but I am the local novice." Ricky chuckled, rolling the ball around in his hand.

"It shows too." Ricky snapped his attention to his tutor, "They're not all yellow. There are five main types of materia: Green materia is for 'magic' style abilities, such as the elemental, curative, and status inducing materia. Purple materia is for miscellaneous independent boosts for things like automatic abilities and health or strength upgrades. Blue materia is used to power up the effects of other materia. An example being to grant a blade a fiery edge by equipping a fire materia and an 'elemental' support materia to get something sort of similar to Josh's weapon over there, albeit to a much lesser degree."

Ricky nodded his head, trying his best to soak up the information like a sponge. As he went to ask a question he was undercut, "Let me finish, then ask away, but these two are important..." Ricky held back his question and prompted Zack to continue, "The single most unique type of materia are the red ones... These are extremely powerful, and for one good reason. Care to take a guess?"

Ricky looked up and to his right searching for an answer, to no avail, "Red materia are known as 'summons'. As the name suggests, the use of these materia calls forth almighty beings to aid worthy users in battle. I've only ever used the training summon materia, same for Josh I'd imagine, they're incredibly rare..." Ricky was awe struck at the idea of being able to have monsters fight at his side, but was quickly snapped back to reality by Zack, "Calm down, rookie... If two Second Class SOLDIERS don't even have their own summons then you've got a very long way to go before you should even be thinking about them."

His dream shattered, Ricky hung his head in disappointment, until Zack placed a hand on his shoulder and pointed to the orb he was holding, "The final type of materia is the kind you're holding right now. Yellow materia are known as 'command' materia. These are my personal favourite excluding summons, because simply by equipping and using them, they allow you to perform things you never even learned to do. Examples of such being the 'steal' and 'enemy skill' materia. Respectfully, these allow you to pickpocket with no experience... Not that I endorse such a thing... The 'enemy skill' allows you to perform certain attacks after you have been hit by them yourself... A painful, but very helpful materia." Zack finished his explanation and took a deep breath. '_Ok... So even though I said we'd learn by doing I still managed to give a lecture..._'

"I think I understand... Thanks. All of that should be very helpful in the future." Zack was dumbfounded by the praise from the very person who said he disliked long descriptions of things, "By the way..." Zack collected himself and saw Ricky holding up his yellow orb, "This wouldn't happen to be a 'command' materia that will let me use other materia without learning how to, right?" Zack laughed holding his sides and shaking his head in the negative, "Didn't think so... Was worth a shot."

"Sorry man, no such materia exists, so we're gonna have to do this the old fashioned way" Zack turned towards the window and pointed to the floor behind Ricky, "Yo! Turk man!" Tseng sat up from his rest and looked towards the loud SOLDIER, "My documents said the training room could be manipulated to my needs, so could you raise five panels in the same row up to just over head height, leave a panel gap in between each of them as well, if it's not too much trouble."

Tseng nodded with an annoyed look from being called 'Turk man', before beginning to fiddle with the control panel and pushing his favourite button, followed shortly by five panels rising from the floor where Zack was pointing, "**Is that all right?**"

"Perfect, thanks. I'll need you're help again with this in a minute, so don't doze off again." Zack laughed and walked over to the middle panel, leaning his back against it with his arms folded, "Right. Ricky, know how to play the cup and ball game?" Ricky nodded, confusion in his furrowed expression, "Good, because that's what we're playing. Only these panels are the cups, and I'm the ball." The look of confusion never left Ricky's face as Zack elaborated, "It's going to be a lot harder than just following which cup has the ball in it though." Zack suddenly crouched and leapt upwards, back flipping over to behind the panel, "Tseng! Raise the panels in the gaps, and lower them again after ten seconds."

Tseng, who was just as confused and intrigued by this training method as Ricky and even Josh by this point was, simply did as instructed and raised the four panels separating the original five, forming a solid wall.

"You have to guess which panel I'm behind when they lower again, understand?" Zack yelled from behind the wall while he seemed to move around.

The last of the ten seconds passed and the panels were lowered, as per Zack's instructions, to leave the original five standing.

Then, silence. Zack couldn't talk as it would give away his position, so it was down to Ricky to deduce the correct panel.

'_Right... I don't really get why we're doing this, but he seems to know what he's doing, so I'll play along... Heh, it's the second time today I've been playing a game to train... How quaint..._' Ricky quickly dispersed his lingering thoughts before focusing on the task at hand, '_OK, let's think about __this logically. It can't be the middle panel because I heard him moving. His movements sounded like they first went right, then changed direction two times after different intervals... Arg... No, calm down... You can do this... It sounded like he moved two panels length before turning, placing him behind the fourth along... Then he went for at least four panels the other way... If I'm thinking 'at least' then he probably went further than that, putting him behind either panel number one or the gap right next to it... Lastly... After a single panels distance... I lost him... I think he jumped and landed soundlessly to throw me off... Great... This is impossible..._' Conceding that his deduction abilities couldn't work out where Zack was, Ricky pointed to his best guess of the fourth panel along, "There... I guess..."

The fourth panel was slowly lowered as Ricky waited impatiently for the result. Even if it was a blind guess, he wanted to be right.

Nothing.

"Sorry man..." Zack jumped up and stood on top of the middle panel, "I told you it would be harder... You were really close though." His sympathy fell on deaf ears, "Cheer up! The point of this run was that you weren't meant to find me..."

Ricky snapped from his daze, "What? I wasn't meant to?"

"Let me ask you something... Did you just try using intelligence, deduction and random guessing to try and find me just now?" Zack smirked as he investigated, being met with nod that seemed to convey a surprised 'yes, and in that order' answer, "I thought as much..." He crossed his arms as he looked down at his pupil, "Did it ever occur to you that the purpose of this _materia_ training was for you to, oh, I don't know, _use_ your materia?"

Ricky's jaw dropped before slapping a gauntleted palm into his forehead and growling, "Damn! I completely forgot I had it... But isn't that a little unfair? You know I can't use materia yet, so why give me a task that needs me to do so?" He rightfully pointed out.

"Even if you couldn't use it, I assumed you would put two and two together and figure out that using your materia was the way to do this." Zack lowered into a crouch and pointed towards the yellow orb Ricky was still holding, "What you are holding right there is a 'sense' materia. It's used to deduce enemies statistics and weaknesses mainly, but is also used to detect the whereabouts of enemies too." Zack noticed the figurative light bulb appear above Ricky's head in realization of the point to this game.

"So I need to use this 'sense' materia to detect which panel you're behind, right?" Ricky confirmed to himself.

"Correct, now you're getting the idea." Zack smiled, "A quick thing though... You won't be able to use _any_ materia unless you equip it to something first..." After receiving a quick confused look from his pupil he bluntly elaborated, "Look, just put it into a weapon or armour piece. Those gauntlet things should work fine. Act as if you were trying to press it into the armour and you'll see."

After clearing the confusion from his face, Ricky rose his right fist in front of his chest, before placing the materia over the gem on the back of his hand. With forceful push, the materia seemed to simply meld into the gauntlet, a slight yellow glow now emanating from the gem. '_Well... That was easier than expected..._' He grinned to himself.

"Don't get too happy, that was the easy level. Next comes trying to actually use it." Zack calmed his student before he got ahead of himself, "Now, let's try this again..." He stood from his squatted position and held up his right arm, "This time when you're attempting to find me, I want you to concentrate on the _feeling_ of the materia you now carry. You'll know what I mean when you try it." He glanced over to Tseng, "Again, same as before."

Tseng nodded and pressed his button, raising the panels and beginning his countdown, as Zack dropped down behind the wall and began to move.

Ricky ignored the sounds from behind the wall this time, knowing that following them would do nothing to help him train using his materia. Instead, he simply cleared his thoughts and waited calmly.

Ten seconds having past, the platforms lowered just like before.

Ricky closed his eyes as he began to focus solely on the materia in his gauntlet and his target. Immediately he agreed with Zack, '_Whoa... He was right, I can clearly feel a difference... I can't quite explain it, but it's like the materia is hinting towards the general area of who I'm looking for..._' Ricky's brash smile at his first conscious use of materia quickly altered into a frown, '_...Unfortunately... The area I feel it's suggesting may as well be the entire facility... I guess you must become more accurate using this kind of materia with experience._' Ricky ditched the frown and began to smirk once more, '_What am I complaining about? I'm not even straining and I've narrowed it down this far... Let's try kicking it up a notch!_'

He opened his eyes and began to focus towards the five risen panels, opting to focus on an area instead of a specific person, '_Well then... That worked a lot better... I've somehow managed to narrow my target down from the entire facility to at least inside this room... But no matter how hard I try, I can't get it more accurate than this... I think this is my limit for now..._'

"Umm... You still there Ricky?" Zack finally spoke up, revealing him to be behind the fifth panel.

Ricky's concentration broke and lost his control of the materia, returning to his normal senses, "Yeah, I'm here. Sorry for taking so long, but you were right when you said I would _feel_ it... I somehow managed to narrow down you're location to inside this room, but that's the best I could manage."

"Wow! Really? That's amazing for you're first time ever using a materia. It took me a week to get results that accurate using the 'sense' materia. Well done." Zack was genuinely happy at the extreme pace of Ricky's improvement.

'_Hmm... He is picking it up quite quickly..._' Tseng agreed, '_I wonder if having his core for so long has made him more adept at using materia in general?_' He kept his idea to himself. He had been ordered to keep Ricky's core classified. Only Tseng, Ricky, Josh and the Shin-Ra higher ups knew about it, and that's the way they wanted to keep it for now. "**I think this is enough for today, you've been training for the past six hours straight, we'll continue this tomorrow. Josh, you can head back to your room. I'll show the other two to their new living quarters. Get some rest... It's been a crazy day...**"

All but Zack nodded and laughed, Josh jumping on Zack's back when he saw his confusion. Zack had to agree mentally that the day had been pretty crazy for him as well.

Tseng exited his control centre after returning the room to it's original state, leading the other SOLDIER clad members of the room towards the door.

"Josh... Get- Ah! Get off, you clingy fucker!" Zack began to playfully wrestle with Josh while they walked, getting Ricky to shake his head and laughing at the two Second Class SOLDIERS fighting like school children.

"Oh, judging us are we?" Ricky turned to see both purple clad SOLDIERS looking at him with sly grins on their maws, "You're a friend too now, right?" Ricky began to back pedal away from the ready to pounce pair. This didn't help. At all.

"GET HIM!"

"No! Ah! What the hell are you doing? Get off, you bastards! Tse- Tseng! Help... Tseng?"

Tseng had long since been ignoring the trio and was already waiting by the door to leave, '_Idiots... They'll be complaining that they're tired in the morning... Oh well, may as well let them get it out of their systems now. Because I am not putting up with this crap every day for a damn week, no matter how many buttons I get to press..._'

"TSEEEEEEENG!"

XxX

(Outside a Shin-Ra office)

"So... Partner. What do you think they want us to do now?"

Adjusting his sunglasses a tall man answered, "There's some strange readings coming from a small mako reactor that's powering a facility up near Corel..."

"They gonna make us check it out?"

"Maybe... Depends if the situation gets worse."

"Why do you always seem to know our missions before we're given them?"

"How would you put this? 'How I find out is classified info'?"

"Yeah yeah... Man, a reactor inspection? What a drag... And why do I get the nagging feeling someone stole your lines today too..."

* * *

**And there you have it!**

**Took a bit longer than usual to write this one up, but I just really got into it and couldn't find a good stopping point for ages.**

**Cat update: I really don't understand how she knows... I can be typing on websites and stuff and she just leaves me alone... But as soon as I start writing for the story, she comes and jumps on me... She actually behaved better than usual though, she didn't sit on the keyboard this time, opting to just sit under my arm while I typed. I swear she just likes the story...**

**Anyway, I'm off to a friends house for a few days in like ten seconds, so i'ma cut this rant short.**

**I'm outta here, peace ]-[**


End file.
